3.10.2016

Fans yelled racial slurs during girls basketball game

Sarcastic slow clap for classy sportsmanship. In Sacramento, parents and students are speaking out after a large crowd of fans chanted racial slurs at players during a recent high school girls basketball game.

During a game last month between McClatchy High School and Oak Ridge High School in El Dorado Hills, witnesses say that Oak Ridge fans chanted racial slurs at McClatchy's Asian American players. Glen Kumamoto, whose daughter plays for McClatchy, says that Oak Ridge fans were yelling offensive comments about the girls' weight and appearance, as well as references to "soy sauce" and "little eyes."

"A lot of our girls on our team are of Asian descent. So I started to hear chants like 'soy sauce' 'go back to Fiji,' gestures about small eyes things like that," Kumamoto told KCRA News.

The game in question took place on February 25, but the incident gained attention this week after Kumamoto shared about it detail on Facebook, posting a video clip of an Oak Ridge player grabbing a McClatchy student after she fell onto the floor.

So a few weeks ago, CKM lost to Oak Ridge out in El Dorado Hills. I made a post about how un-classy their student body...

Congratulations, Oak Ridge High School. You're the worst. "We have played in gyms all across Sacramento and the Bay Area," Kumamoto told The Sacramento Bee. "We have never, ever been subjected to anything like that. We have never been more disrespected than we were in that gym."

The worst part is, school officials did absolutely nothing to stop this behavior while it was happening. And administrators appear to be trying to downplay the severity of the incident.

On Wednesday, Oak Ridge High School's interim principal Aaron Palm said that the school and district are aware of the inappropriate behavior, but initially claimed that the racial comments came from only one person, who school officials have not been able to identify. Well, that's certainly inconvenient.

In a separate email, Palm acknowledged that "a portion of our student body was chanting the terms 'ugly' and 'cankles' to the opposing players." But nothing about the racial slurs?

For what it's worth, leaders of the Oak Ridge student cheering section, the Ozone, reportedly sent a letter apologizing to McClatchy players and fans:

"On behalf of the Oak Ridge student section, the Ozone, we would like to make an apology for any inappropriate chants that were made during the February 25th playoff game," the note began. "Additionally, we would like to apologize for any derogatory comments that came from various students seated within the student section. These actions of a few are disappointing and not a true reflection of our student body."